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Notable Free Agent Signings:
Let Welker walk: Undoubtedly an all-time great Patriots, but the price tag is just too high for an aging slot receiver with a tendency to drop key passes
Re-sign Vollmer for 3 years: Medium level contract for a stud RT when healthy
Re-sign Talib for 3 years: Absolutely night and day when Talib is on the field. We need to keep him to avoid re-building our secondary every year
Re-sign Donald Thomas for 2 years: Insurance on the OL
Re-sign Julian Edelman for 2 years: Valuable ST player and plug in receiver
Re-sign Kyle Arrington for 2 years: Good #3 corner and nothing more
Sign Glenn Dorsey for 1 year: Plug a former college stud into a 4-3 defense which he is much more suited for on a "prove it" deal. Can't be worse than what we have
Sign William Moore for 4 years: Saved money from Welker goes towards picking up a great safety at a decent price thanks to Reed, Byrd, Goldson, Delmas, and Quin all being in the same FA class as him

Draft:

1st Round: Alex Okafor DE Texas

This guy has absolutely being destroying at Senior Bowl practice and has been the only person to beat Eric Fisher with any kind of consistency. He also played very well versus Jake Matthews during his junior year where he displayed fantastic hand use, explosion, a repertoire of diverse pass rushing moves, and motor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7-owiN2l-g) especially in the 2nd half. He's played against top notch competition and not only held his own, but beaten them pretty soundly. Okafor and Jones would be an absolute nightmare for QB's to deal with.

2nd Round: Robert Woods WR USC

I know y'all have man crushes on Justin Hunter, Terrance Williams, Tavon Austin and CP, but I think there is definitely value for WR's at the bottom of the second round. I considered putting Quinton Patton or Markus Wheaton in this slot as both are putting on huge performances in Senior Bowl practices and have great hands, but I just don't think either possess the potential game-breaking ability that I see in Woods. Yes Woods had a sub-par season. But let's consider his situation: 1) His previously elite quarterback had a horrendous year for whatever reason (decision-making, OL issues, etc); 2) He had to share the ball with Marquise Lee 3) His ankle injury robbed him from the explosion that gave him big play ability and separation in past years. All of these issues will be alleviated when Woods arrives in New England and he'll come out with something to prove. With Woods and Lloyd on the outside and Gronk and Hernandez tearing up the inside, our offense will be a nightmare.

3rd Round: Mario Benavides OG/C Louisville

Benavides did a great job protecting Teddy Bridgewater against high profile opponents including Sylvester Williams of UNC and Shariff Floyd of UF. He could have some starting potential, but at the very least offers great depth on the offensive line.

7th Round: Trey Wilson CB Vanderbilt

Pretty solid cover corner that offers some solid depth in a very thin secondary._________________

Notable Free Agent Signings:
Let Welker walk: Undoubtedly an all-time great Patriots, but the price tag is just too high for an aging slot receiver with a tendency to drop key passes
Re-sign Vollmer for 3 years: Medium level contract for a stud RT when healthy
Re-sign Talib for 3 years: Absolutely night and day when Talib is on the field. We need to keep him to avoid re-building our secondary every year
Re-sign Donald Thomas for 2 years: Insurance on the OL
Re-sign Julian Edelman for 2 years: Valuable ST player and plug in receiver
Re-sign Kyle Arrington for 2 years: Good #3 corner and nothing more
Sign Glenn Dorsey for 1 year: Plug a former college stud into a 4-3 defense which he is much more suited for on a "prove it" deal. Can't be worse than what we have
Sign William Moore for 4 years: Saved money from Welker goes towards picking up a great safety at a decent price thanks to Reed, Byrd, Goldson, Delmas, and Quin all being in the same FA class as him

Draft:

1st Round: Alex Okafor DE Texas

This guy has absolutely being destroying at Senior Bowl practice and has been the only person to beat Eric Fisher with any kind of consistency. He also played very well versus Jake Matthews during his junior year where he displayed fantastic hand use, explosion, a repertoire of diverse pass rushing moves, and motor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7-owiN2l-g) especially in the 2nd half. He's played against top notch competition and not only held his own, but beaten them pretty soundly. Okafor and Jones would be an absolute nightmare for QB's to deal with.

2nd Round: Robert Woods WR USC

I know y'all have man crushes on Justin Hunter, Terrance Williams, Tavon Austin and CP, but I think there is definitely value for WR's at the bottom of the second round. I considered putting Quinton Patton or Markus Wheaton in this slot as both are putting on huge performances in Senior Bowl practices and have great hands, but I just don't think either possess the potential game-breaking ability that I see in Woods. Yes Woods had a sub-par season. But let's consider his situation: 1) His previously elite quarterback had a horrendous year for whatever reason (decision-making, OL issues, etc); 2) He had to share the ball with Marquise Lee 3) His ankle injury robbed him from the explosion that gave him big play ability and separation in past years. All of these issues will be alleviated when Woods arrives in New England and he'll come out with something to prove. With Woods and Lloyd on the outside and Gronk and Hernandez tearing up the inside, our offense will be a nightmare.

3rd Round: Mario Benavides OG/C Louisville

Benavides did a great job protecting Teddy Bridgewater against high profile opponents including Sylvester Williams of UNC and Shariff Floyd of UF. He could have some starting potential, but at the very least offers great depth on the offensive line.

7th Round: Trey Wilson CB Vanderbilt

Pretty solid cover corner that offers some solid depth in a very thin secondary.

I agree with all the signings except Arrington. i really like Moore

for the draft, I like Okafor, being a huge Longhorns fan myself. I prefer Marcus Wheaton as a round 2 WR but i would be happy with Woods as well.

Cap space plus a few cuts should do it, depending on how much you project each to make.

Pats have a projected $18M in cap space. Assuming $3M for rookies (including UDFA), you're down to $15M. You need a few guys to fill out the roster and special teams to replace (or re-sign) Woodhead, Branch, Scott, White, Koutouvides, Martin etc. Say $5M for that (and that's probably a low estimate). Re-signing Arrington, Edelman and Thomas is probably a minimum of $5M. You're now down to 5M. That might get you Vollmer, if he's willing to take a bit of a discount.

I don't see $10M in cuts to get Dorsey, Moore and Talib - and even then I think that trio probably ends up making more than that. Cutting Fells seems like a no-brainer, but who else is going to go who is under contract?

Cap space plus a few cuts should do it, depending on how much you project each to make.

Pats have a projected $18M in cap space. Assuming $3M for rookies (including UDFA), you're down to $15M. You need a few guys to fill out the roster and special teams to replace (or re-sign) Woodhead, Branch, Scott, White, Koutouvides, Martin etc. Say $5M for that (and that's probably a low estimate). Re-signing Arrington, Edelman and Thomas is probably a minimum of $5M. You're now down to 5M. That might get you Vollmer, if he's willing to take a bit of a discount.

I don't see $10M in cuts to get Dorsey, Moore and Talib - and even then I think that trio probably ends up making more than that. Cutting Fells seems like a no-brainer, but who else is going to go who is under contract?

The Pats have $105M for the top 51 players currently under contract.

So that "$3M for rookies" is largely already on the cap.

As a rule of thumb, the only part of the rookie cap that should be considered "new money" is the signing bonus prorations for players taken in the first 3–4 rounds._________________